As the older brother of local rap phenomenon Kerser, Rates has developed his own strong following over the years. Having featured on a number of Kerser's tracks and consistently supporting him on tour, he's still managed to hone his own craft and create a sound for himself that's quite separate from his brother's material.
There's not much more proof that Rates is his own man, than his latest album Untold hitting number one on the Google Play hip-hop charts, and number two on the iTunes hip-hop charts after its release. The album is impressively introspective, touching on a lot of Rates' deepest thoughts and concerns, backed by a mix of hip-hop, rock and electronic production courtesy of Bennie On The Beat.
Naturally, travelling across the country with his brother and friend Jay Dee (a.k.a Jay UF), the crew have done and seen a lot in the past five years. Knowing both that, and the album's title, Complex AU decided to chop it up with Rates about some Untold stories from the road and back home. Read on below for some of the Campbelltown native's best tales.
"Kerser got invited to play at the Breath of Life festival in Tasmania. Huge festival down there man, it's in Launceston. It's awesome you know, big variety of acts. Different bands, some awesome bands, some awesome artists. Hip-hop, punk, dance, you know, just a big mix of genres. Anyway, he asked me and Jay Dee to come down and perform and do his back-up vocals. We're like, fucking hell, what an opportunity you know, of course.
We all made the travel down to Tassie and Kerser had quite a fair following at this time. He had the release of Nebulizer and his second album No Rest For The Sickest, so the buzz when he hit the stage and all that, it was crazy man. It was a great experience to be a part of but it all started to get funny, man.
We started to, you know, party on a bit, and we got pretty rowdy. And after the gig in the backstage area we decided to wander off and find the cool room, so we could grab some more drinks for us, because we knew that there was another esky waiting. So we've walked into the backstage cooler room and there was all eskies everywhere right, and they're all named. There's like 360, you know, Illy, Bliss and Eso, heaps of other artists, man. So I walk up to 360's one, and I'm like, 'Let's see what he's got', just having a look through there. Next thing I know, Jay Dee's come over and he's like pushed me out the way, and he's pissing in the esky, filling the esky up man. We're all laughing like, 'Oh fuck!', trying to get the phone out to film it.
Next thing Jay Dee picks up a Sprite, pours half of it out, starts trying to piss in it. And I start doing the same. So, we decided to fill up a few bottles and finish leaking in a few of the other things and decided to get out of there. We've never been violent or anything at a festival, I mean anybody you'd talk to would tell you, we get on with those dudes really well. But we met those dudes and all those four dudes I just mentioned, were all pretty arrogant. And they came across that way, so we were like we can play that game, here we go. And, you know, there was always talk on the net and different stuff. I think it's a pretty funny story I've wanted to get out for a while man, to be honest, hey [laughs]."
"We were in Melbourne and we did a gig in St Kilda. This was on the second Kerser tour, I think, and me and Jay Dee were there supporting him again. Anyway, we were all upstairs partying backstage, and we had, at the time, VIP tickets where you pay a little bit extra and they get to come up and you do a couple signatures and photos whatever they like and they might get some merch for free and then go. But Kerser and JD and myself had had these two really friendly, but really demanding, bigger girls mess with us constantly.
We're nice to everyone man, I don't care what they look like, I'll be nice to anyone if they give my music the time, but these people were full-on man. You know what I mean, like full-on obsessed. Anyway, they turned out to be some of the VIPs that come up to get photos and signatures. We're like, 'Oh fuck, how can we play this?'. And at this time, me and Jay Dee, we weren't half as big as Kerser. Only real Kerser fans sort of knew who we were, and even then our faces were confused, and they didn't really know if I was Jay Dee or what not.
This big one came up and she was obsessed with me at the time, Rates. She's come up and she's like really rude, she's gone straight up to me and she's like, demanding man, you know. Like, 'Are you Rates? I love your music, I'm sure you're him, I'm sure you're him, you look like Kerser, you have to be his brother, you are him, it's you!'. Like, trying to grab me and stuff, and I'm like, 'Whoa, whoa now, I'm Jay Dee, what are you talking about, I'm Jay UF'. She goes, 'Oh nah, nah, you can't be, you look so much like him!'. I'm like, 'Isn't that funny, that's what everyone says – everyone says I look like Kerser, it's actually Rates who's Kerser's brother, I'm Jay UF'.
She's like, 'Oh, you can kind of see it', and you honestly can't man at all, like not one bit [laughs]. And we just let it go man, it was fucking hilarious but we did the right thing, signed everything. They were full-on man, we don't do this to fans, we treat our fans good you know. We did treat them good but they were just so full on man, we had to, you know, get out of there, walk out with security. Anyway, we're back at the hotel in the reception area, and the glass doors are shut.
And you know how you need a card to get in most motels or whatever, these big girls have come running around the corner and pretty much barged into the door. They start yelling, 'Jay Dee! Jay Dee!', banging the window at me like, 'Come on Jay Dee, I just heard your song, Jay Dee!'. Banging on the window: 'let me in!'. Jay Dee didn't know that I'd been saying that I was Jay Dee at the time, so he's looked at me like what the fuck, what have you done man?. And I swear, we tried to keep it up for the next couple years hey, the next tours. We haven't seen them since man, so I hope they're still listening and I hope they're still fans and I hope it's all cleared up now and I hope they know it's all light-hearted jokes man."
"Our big security guard, we've got a security guard who comes on tour with us, because you know we've had some stupid threats along the way and people hate for no reason. Just crap man, you know. We have this huge security guard man, he was actually a tribal chief in New Zealand, he's huge man. He's honestly 6'8", 6'9", and he's built like a brick-house man. His name's Joe, and he's honestly the friendliest person you'll ever meet in your life, and has the most softly-spoken voice you could ever hear in your life man. [In high-pitched voice] 'Fuckin' hell, how are ya Ratesy?', you know like, softest-spoken voice but he's such a beast of a man.
Anyway, we're in Adelaide once man, and every now and then, Joe, he would never drink at work, never drink or anything, but after the last show on the last run of the tour sometimes he'd go out for a drink. And sometimes if we're buggered man, we're like, 'Nah man, we're gonna crash tonight', he'll go out by himself – it doesn't matter.
Anyway, he's gone out, he's just taken off, it's late at night on the last night. He's taken off and gone to a pub by himself in Adelaide. And Jay Dee's like, 'Oh shit, I'm a bit worried. What if Joe gets drunk and he gets himself in a bit of trouble?'. He's not one for it, but we'd just keep an eye on him in case, you know, anything could happen; you know big Joe. So Jay Dee's gone to try and find him, and he's found him at this pub man.
So, the story goes like this from Jay Dee. Joe's never confirmed this, I mean he's a humble dude, but the story goes like this. Joe was sitting at the table, he was real quiet, drinking, and Jay Dee's come up and sat next to him. He's like, 'Joe come on, all good'. Joe's like, 'Nah, nah, just let me chill'. He's like, 'alright man, cool', and they're sort of having a quiet drink together.
Next thing, these two bikie dudes from Adelaide come up, real short, muscly – extremely muscly dudes apparently, but real short. And they're like, 'you've gotta fight our nominee young bloke standing over there' to Joe. And Joe's like 'fuck off, fuck off, you know I'm having my drink, go away'. And this nominee comes up, so there's three of them standing there man, three bikie dudes. And they're like, 'you've gotta fight him right now' and like grabbed him on his shoulder and tried to turn him around.
He's said, [in high-pitched voice] 'I'll tell you, fuck off right now', like in this kind of soft voice. And they're laughing, they're like, 'Whatever, fucking ponytails' and shit, picking on his ponytails. It's crazy man, you don't pick on a dude that size but they were man, saying, 'You've gotta fight him'. He's just stood up man, and he's literally thrown what looked like a weak back hand according to Jay Dee, I've heard him explain it a thousand times.
Just a tiny little blow off the wrist, and he's hit the first guy, that guy's head has flown back into the next guy, and knocked his prospect on the ground. So, there's two knocked out guys and they're lying on top of the prospect who wanted to fight him, and he was like shitting himself all scared. And Joe sits down and finishes his drink while the bouncers come and take the dudes out, and let Joe and Jay Dee stay there all night [laughs]."
"This involves when me, Kerser and Jay Dee were about 18, 19, and we started to really take the rapping serious. We started to spend a lot more time together, you know, one on one, trying to write raps together, trying to develop our style. So, you know, that involved hanging out a lot at Kerser's place in Ingleburn at the time, he had a unit in Ingleburn.
So us three there were just hanging out there all the time, drinking and writing music. And Kerser had this crazy neighbour man, he ended up being one of our best mates. His name was Neil and he would have been in his early 40s at the time, you know. So, he was a bit older than us, but he ended up becoming a great mate. He was actually the first one to pay for Kerser's mixtapes.
Anyway, this character next door, this is the first time we met him. Before I go on with the story I'll mention that he ended up being our best friend and mentor, you know. But the first time we met him he came around, he's in his early 40s, he's a car salesman sort of dude and, you know, really funny and cool though. He's knocked on the door and he's like, 'Hey boys, I'm Neil, I want to introduce myself, can I come in for a few beers and say what's up?'. I'm like, 'Yeah man, come in for sure'. That morning me and Jay Dee had been out picking mushrooms for the first time ever because his older brother showed us how to do it. And we'd never done that man, we weren't into that sort of stuff. And we had all these mushies man, these small mushies.
Anyway, Neil's come over and he's like, 'Oh yeah, what are you up to?'. And we're like we're just gonna make a feed, we're all having a few beers, and we told him we had the mushrooms. He's like, 'Oh shit, you know I've tried them once in the seventies, they're fucking wild mate, I'll show you how to do it'. We're like, 'Oh nah, no way!'. He said, 'Give 'em here' and he ate a good handful of them and we're all freaking out, like, 'oh, what the fuck, we've heard people lose their mind on this, what the fuck?'.
About twenty minutes later he's gotten up suddenly and he's gone, 'Alright faggots, I'll be back soon, see you later', and he's marched out the room. We're like what the fuck. He's just gone and marched into next door. Anyway, we're all sitting there like, 'man, lucky we didn't eat that shit, is that dude alright?'. How random is that, the neighbour just came knocked on the door, introduced himself, took fucking mushies and abused us and walked out, what the hell?
Anyway, a couple hours passed and he comes back around, we hear this knock on the door. We open the door and he's on his knees panting like a dog. We're like, 'What are you doing?'. And he's crawled his way inside, we're like, 'Neil, mate, what's going on, are you alright?'. He's like, 'I'm here to do your dishes, it's what good neighbours do', and he's gone over to the kitchen, he's stood up and he's scrubbed these dishes man, and he's standing there laughing hysterically. We're all standing around like what do we do man, what the fuck can we do? And, he honestly would have spent about 20 minutes to half an hour cleaning these dishes man, like crystal clean, telling us what a good neighbour he is and how enlightened he feels now.
And then, you know, when he finished, he was standing up doing the dishes, he got back on his knees because we heard a car come up the long driveway of the units where we lived. It was obviously his wife but we didn't know that, so he's got back on his knees and he's crawled out the front like a dog again and waited for his missus. As the car's pulled out the front of their unit garage, he's crawled up to her and started acting like a happy puppy that she's home. Like man, that is not a mushroom trip, like what the fuck is going on right now, that doesn't happen on mushrooms as far as we know man, what's going on?
We didn't hear from him for another week, we were going around there every day, we were talking about like, 'Man, what the hell happened there'. Then yeah, he ended up coming around and completely apologising, so he didn't know what was going on – completely different dude man. The end of that conversation, man, he'd inspired us to get our shit together and get a mixtape out and he even offered to pay for Kerser's first mixtape. And he did, he kind of got the ball rolling and ended up being a mentor man, and one who advised to keep us off the drugs and keep all that shit away from us. His nickname's Digger, so if you hear in our music "Digger" we're talking about him. That's a perfect story for him, hey [laughs]."
